Wrap: Another Ugly Loss as Flyers Fall to Isles, 6-1
A parade of 24 turnovers -- 20 giveaways plus four takeaways by the opposition -- were the root of another lopsided defeat for the Philadelphia Flyers as they fell to the New York Islanders, 6-1, at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY, on Saturday evening. The Islanders roared out to a 4-0 lead in the first period and the Flyers never made much headway.
Fatigue does not excuse how poorly the Flyers have played in March, nor does the late scratching of Sean Couturier (lower-body injury) shortly before Saturday's game. There was no shortage of culprits. However, the third defense pair of Erik Gustafsson and Nate Prosser played especially poorly in this game: a combined six giveaways, including three egregious ones by Prosser, several lost puck battles and an equally bad lost coverage assignment by Gustafsson.
J.G. Pageau (PPG, 10th goal of the season) and Jordan Eberle (10th) scored goals spaced just 1:50 apart to give the Islanders an early 2-0 lead. Casey Cizikas (5th) converted a Flyers turnover into a goal to make it 3-0 at 10:03 of the first period and then scored again (6th) at 15:25 on a lost coverage. Joel Farabee (13th) cut the deficit to 4-1 late in the period.
After a scoreless second period, another Flyers giveaway became an Anthony Beauvillier goal (3rd) midway through the period. A Carter Hart turnover gave a puck away directly into the slot became a Josh Bailey goal (4th) into a gaping net, closing out the scoring.
Hart was hung out to dry on four of the six goals. The first of Cizakas' two goals came off a giveaway at the defensive blueline by Prosser but the shot itself from the left dot, which beat an off-angle Hart low to the glove side, was stoppable. The turnover on the final goal was solely on the struggling Flyers goalie. In all Hart stopped 22 of 28 shots.
Ilya Sorokin earned the win. He stopped 23 of 24 shots. A save on Claude Giroux from the slot in the third period was one of his best of the game, and came at a time when the Flyers may still have had a glimmer of hope if they'd scored (which would have narrowed the gap to 4-2).
At 3-0 in the first period, Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault called timeout. When it became 4-0, Oskar Lindblom tried to do something to give his moribund squad a lift; he dropped the gloves with Oliver Wahlstrom (another unlikely player) for his first NHL fight. Lindblom wanted the fight from the get-go, and Wahlstrom obliged him.
Farabee's goal followed a little over two minutes later. Scott Laughton's work in the neutral zone enabled Farabee to jump on a loose puck and start a 2-on-1. Electing to shoot, puck-carrier Farabee beat Sorokin low to the blocker side at 17:52 of the opening period.
The Flyers had two power plays in the scoreless second period, but never got any momentum from them with a chance to get within two goals. The first failed power play hurt in particular, as it came on the heels of a very strong shift by the line of Lindblom, Giroux and Travis Konecny early in the period. When the ensuing man advantage went nowhere, the air went out of the Flyers' balloon again. Despite Philly outshooting New York in the second period, 11-7, the Isles were in firm control.
Far too many errors of commission and omission have been plaguing the Flyers all season. Saturday's game was no exception, even apart from the 20 charged giveaways and four credited Islanders' takeaways. Konecny took a needless hooking penalty deep in the offensive zone, which New York converted into the J.G. Pageau goal that started the first-period snowball rolling downhill on Philadelphia. Later, on a shift in which the Islanders were hemmed in their own end with tired players on the ice, Nicolas Aube-Kubel turned the wrong way with the puck; rather than sending the puck back down low to try to continue a cycle, he turned up the wall to the point and basically helped the Islanders clear the puck to safety when he lost possession (it could have been worse, though, as those sorts of plays can easily turn into opposition breakaways or 2-on-1s).
Bad Konecny penalty aside, the Pageau goal was bad puck luck for the Flyers. Lindblom blocked a shot off his hockey pants and the puck bounced directly to Pageau in point-blank range. The Eberle goal was one in which the Flyers got outworked in a puck scramble near their net. A Prosser giveaway and an off-angle save attempt by Hart produced the first Cizikas goal. The second Cizikas goal came about when Gustafsson lost a battle behind the net and then lost track of covering Cizikas over the span of several seconds.
The score could have been even worse but Hart came up with three tough saves from the dead slot that started with Philadelphia giveaways, including one where veteran Prosser got picked off by Cal Clutterbuck in trying to pass over the middle. The game stayed 4-1 for a long time iuntil yet another Prosser giveaway -- this one to Beauvillier -- was quickly turned into the fifth Islanders goal. Hart's late puckhandling gaffe sending a would-be outlet pass directly to the stick of Bailey for a virtual empty-net goal was the final self-inflicted wound of another night where the Flyers were their own worst enemy.
Defensively, the Islanders returned to form after being out of sorts at times in losses to the Capitals and Flyers that came on the heels of a nine-game winning streak. The Islanders didn't make life easy on the Flyers to get pucks and bodies to the area around the net. Sorokin took care of the rest.
The Flyers have an off-day on Sunday. On Monday, they'll rematch with the Islanders at the Wells Fargo Center.